Liam Kenney & Emma Smith – Melodrama (Week 8 In Class Activity)

 

Melodramas often contain narratives that depict humans in action (ie male in crisis) of larger than life situations that are still relatable to the audience. The stakes of the situation are often raised but the context behind the situation remains easily digestible.  There’s a focus on feeling over thinking and melodramatic films often overemphasize subjectivity, wanting the audience to ‘feel’ for its characters.  

Melodramas can be further categorized into 2 subgenres: interior melodramas and exterior melodramas.  Interior melodramas focus more on the internal psyche, issues pertaining to the family, romance.  Exterior melodramas intersect more with other genres and can include westerns, science fiction, war films, etc, where the environment is a manifestation of

emotional, moral, psychological, and historical issues displaying contrasting moral values.  All melodramas tend to be based around tropes such as coincidences, hysteria, sudden misfortune, reprisals, apologies, binaries, and happy endings.  

Actors within melodramas often have to communicate their intense emotion to the audience through not only their line delivery but also their “use of gestures…and immediate expressive, affective signification” (Dyer 137).  Through these over exaggerated emotional signals, the emotional state of the character is better communicated to the audience (think of body language’s importance in reading social cues) and allows for us as the audience to gain a non-verbal evaluation of the interpersonal relationships developing within the film.  Emotion tends to get sensationalized.

In Stars, Dyer quotes Kuleshov who says melodrama is often characterized by bold movement and “extreme emotion.” In regards to film specifically, Gledhill writes that a major element of creating a “melodramatic identity,” is the role of the actor as someone who is someone being “interrogated,” by the medium of filmmaking itself. Gledhill cites Peter Brooks who writes that melodrama is an extremely modern phenomenon, a construction relying on a modern artistic landscape that has no bearing in reality or “social code.” However, the history of melodrama as a style of acting long predates film, as the dramatic form of storytelling can be dated back to the inception of theater. Melodrama was adopted into film early on, as Gledhill notes that the theatrical style of melodrama was present in the United States as early as the mid 1800s. Melodrama saw massive popularity throughout the 60s and has continued to find its way into modern cinemas. Melodrama exists both as a style of acting and genre of film; the acting, as Gladhill writes, saw further development through the creation of the “method,” a style of acting pioneered by Lee Strasberg (Gledhill). Gledhill writes that “the method,” was initially created as a means of “increasing realism,” however, because Lee Strasberg was inspired by the Stanislavski system, a style of training actors to use their memories and emotions to bring more out of the characters they were playing, “the method” ended up bolstering the melodramatic style. 

https://youtu.be/s53TtWVZMbE?si=d92amxIH_1JCMG5K

Imitation of Life 

Douglas Sirk is a master at creating the Melodrama and Imitation of Life proves to be a classic example of his work within the genre.  In this scene, Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) attends her mother’s funeral after their last meeting was a failed reconciliation. The guilt-ridden Sarah Jane is inconsolable as she cries over her mother’s casket.  The actress gives physical queues into the mental state of the character by over exaggerating her wails/cries and limpness in her body as she is pulled away, relating back to the style intently associated with melodramas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM-91XcbJIE

Hereditary

In Hereditary, Toni Collete’s character exhibits some of the specific characteristics outlined by Dyer in Stars. Her gesticulations mirror some of those shown on the chart, as well as the performance echoing Kuleshov’s postulations on “hysteria,” in the melodramatic style.